Caltrans moving toward action on Highway 58 truck-climbing lanes 

On Jan. 13, Caltrans spokesperson Christopher Andriessen said the District 9 environmental team is nearing completion of the draft environmental document for the State Route 58 Truck Climbing Lane Project. 

“In the coming weeks, we will release updated information on this project on our website,” Andriessen said. “The public comment period for this project will begin once the draft environmental document is made public and we will host a public meeting about two weeks after the document is released. We are excited to share more information about this project’s progress soon.”

City efforts

The city of Tehachapi, led by City Council member Phil Smith, has long advocated for the truck-climbing lanes.

On Friday evening Smith said he hadn’t heard any official updates from Ahron Hakimi at the Kern County Council of Governments, the agency responsible for regional transportation planning.

“I am hopeful that we are inching closer to an official announcement from the Department of Transportation,” Smith said. He noted that he will attend the next Kern COG meeting on Jan. 19.

Background

The news from Caltrans is consistent with a report from last April when Austin West, associate environmental planner, said the project was in the environmental review phase.

“Staff are conducting environmental analysis and preparing a Draft Environmental Document,” he said in an email on April 4, 2022. “The schedule for public circulation of that document is Winter/Spring of 2023.”

In January 2020, Tehachapi News reported that Caltrans was close to releasing details about three sections of truck-climbing lanes that would allow motorists to pass slow-moving tractor-trailers traveling on Highway 58 from Bakersfield to Tehachapi.

At a meeting of Kern COG that month, Caltrans District 9 Director Brent Green said the Project Initiation Document still needed final approval. 

According to information provided to Kern COG in January 2020, as reported by Tehachapi News at the time, lanes are being considered from Beale Road to Tehachapi Creek Bridge just west of the city.

At the meeting, District 9 representatives shared a preview of three specific locations for the proposed truck climbing lanes:

• Starting halfway between Beale and Bena roads and ending shortly before Highway 223; 

• Beginning shortly before Bealville Road and extending to Hart Flat; and 

• Starting before Broome Road and ending before the Tehachapi Creek Bridge.

In a 2012 study completed by Kern COG, it was estimated the project would cost about $8 million per mile per lane  — about $99.2 million. The lanes were recommended for implementation by 2020. The estimate last April was about $150 million with a start date of October 2026 and an undetermined end date.

Related projects

Officials have also met to discuss how routing of the planned Bakersfield to Palmdale segment of the California High Speed Rail project may impact the truck-climbing lane project — especially because the pass is an important freight railway route and home to the famous Tehachapi Loop, completed in 1876.

And planning for another project, the $165 million Keene Pavement Project, is still underway. In addition to removing four curves and replacing disintegrating pavement on a 10- to 12-mile stretch of Highway 58 just west of Tehachapi, the project may include accommodations for wildlife. 

All of the projects may be impacted by the fact that the transportation corridor is in an area that has been recognized as a critical wildlife corridor.

A major stakeholder working with Caltrans during the project’s planning is The Nature Conservancy. Early in 2022 the organization purchased the Loop Ranch, which is adjacent to the section of Highway 58 slated for improvement. The property is now part of the Frank and Joan Randall Preserve in the Tehachapi Mountains.

Cara Lacey, the organization’s director, wildlife corridors and crossings, said in April 2022 that the organization “​​is absolutely going to be involved in the design of these structures and in bringing experts and a coalition together to discuss what these crossings could do, where they could be located and why they are needed to reduce highway and animal vulnerability.”

A new state law, California’s Safe Roads and Wildlife Protection Act (AB-2344), passed last August. The legislation directs the state’s transportation and wildlife agencies to identify and address barriers to wildlife movement when designing and implementing transportation projects within important habitat connectivity areas. 

Such issues are likely to be included in the environmental documents related to the truck-climbing lane project and were also addressed in the Keene Pavement Project environmental review, although responses to comments related to that project have not yet been released to the public.

Highway 202 project

Andriessen said the $1 million Cummings Valley Left-Turn Lane Project is nearing completion on State Route 202 between 0.2 miles west of Cummings Valley Road and Banducci Road in the city of Tehachapi. 

The project widens the roadway up to 17 feet from .3 miles west of the eastern intersection with Cummings Valley Road to Banducci Road and creates a left turn lane for southbound Highway 202 traffic at the eastern intersection with Cummings Valley Road.

Work on the project began in early October and traffic lights were installed to control the single-lane of highway that has been open since then, sometimes resulting in cars backed up for miles. The project was originally slated to be complete in 45 working days but has been held up by weather.

Crews will be paving over the pavement next week and installing new guardrail, Andriessen noted, weather permitting. Work is scheduled for weekdays from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and one-way traffic control with K-rail will remain in place 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

Claudia Elliott is a freelance journalist and former editor of the Tehachapi News. She lives in Tehachapi and can be reached by email: claudia@claudiaelliott.net.